A Capt. Daniel Little/Klein/Cline/Kline Y-Chromosome Project
Settling the Disagreements about the Parents of Capt. Daniel Little

L. David Roper (roperld@vt.edu)
(www.roperld.com)

Interesting fact: In the 1990 census the frequency of ocurrence of the Little surname was 0.046% with rank 226; of the Klein surname was 0.026% with rank 436; of the Cline surname was 0.020 with rank 595; and of the Kline surname was 0.015 with rank 770.

There are at least three theories about the parents of Capt. Daniel Little:

• Johann Heinrich Klein, b 1704 Zweibrucken, Germany, d 1810 Adams, PA and Anna Margaretha Grimm, b January 1712 Kussel, Zweibrucken, Germany, d York, PA. For arguments in favor of this pair see: The Little Bit, V 19, No 2 (Fall 1996) pp. 1879-1880; The Little Bit, V 20, No 2 (Fall 1997).
• Sebastian Cline, b 1710/1715 Palatinate, France, and Elizabeth Bieber. For arguments in favor of this pair see: The Little Bit, V 20, No. 2 Spring 1997) pp. 1908-1909; Naturalization, Dan'I Klein/Cline to Dan'I Little, Capt. Daniel Little and His Contemporaries, 1753-1789, by Pauline M. Shook (1994) pp. 1-3.
• Stan Little (wb4ekd(@,aol.com) feels that the data favor Capt. Little's origin to be Irish. To find out details about his theory contact him.

There is a way to settle at least parts, and maybe all, of the question:

1. Test the Y-chromosomes for two or more male-line Littles that are certain descendants of Capt. Daniel Little.
2. Test the Y-Chromosomes for two or more male-line Kleins that are certain descendants of Johann Heinrich Klein.
3. Test the Y-Chromosomes for two or more male-line Clines that are certain descendants of Sebastian Cline.

If all of these tests yield the almost the same Y-chromosome markers, then all three lines came from a common ancestor. If the Capt. Daniel Little male-line tests are quite different from the other two, then we need to look for another set of parents for him; perhaps Irish parents.

Perhaps a more important result of testing many male-line Littles/Kleins/Cline/Klines would be that sets of Y-chromosome markers would be determined for different families and rare random mutations for branches of those families would provide identity markers for the branches. To see how this has worked out for my Roper family, see http://www.roperld.com/roperconnect.htm.

Elementary genetics teaches that a human egg becomes a female embryo when a sperm gives it an X-chromosome and a male embryo when the sperm gives it a Y-chromosome. Thus, the Y-chromosome is passed down generations only through the male line. The only change from one generation to the next is by mutations, which are rare. So one can determine male paternal lineage by comparing the DNA coding of Y-chromosomes.

There are "junk" regions on the Y-chromosome that contain repeated base-pair sets (microsatellites or Short Tandem Repeats or STR). Over time the number of repeats changes due to mutations. The number of repeats at these locations, called “markers” can be used to distinguish different male-line families. Thus, the detailed structure in terms of base-pair coding is not required; only information about certain aspects of a small part of the Y-chromosome is needed. This does not identify the individual, but only the family to which the individual belongs; determining the 12 or 25 markers (see below) is much less information than that obtained by totally sequencing the Y-chromosome. There are several labs that do such work, at a cost of about $100 per person.

Family Connections for Some of the Participants

Comparison with Other Families

Capt. Daniel Little
Roper Genetics Project
Franklin Genetics Project
L. David & Jeanne Roper BioGeographical Ancestry (BGA) Testing (DNAPrint)
mtDNA haplogroup of L. David Roper and all Female Descendants of His Maternal Line